I admit I have been very lax in my baboonology for the bulk of this year. This is a combination of mostly having better things to do coupled with what I guess can be called cognitive RSI – the gibberish at freefromthoughtblogs and skepchick, for me, is a cumulative toxin and repeat exposure does not allow for immunisation, but rather the nausea has steadily increased to the point that it is now actually painful to see. Nevertheless, I have maintained a reasonable level of awareness of their relentless psychodramatics and 唱板板 via private channels and various news feeds.

It was the latter that pointed me to a link containing the first quote above, which leapt out from the surrounding sea of yet another pernicious, well poisoning, muckraking, pro-baboontumblr page. The statement in itself maligns no one directly – its real repugnance lies in what it expects of the reader. It is perhaps the most succinct précis I have seen to date that represents what, ultimately, is freefromthoughtblogs’ and skepchick’s true mission statement –

“scrutinise and question everything; ‘everything’ of course, does not include us. Us you believe, always and without evidence, for we are faith based organisations. Every time you doubt anything we say, no matter how preposterous, we drown a kitten”. (more…)

Quite amazing. Ophelia “crazy cunt lady” Benson is an unstoppable machine. Only days after posting the comprehensive study on her linguistic barbarism, she manages to hork up this fur-ball of incoherent snarling in what is pretty much her standard format nowadays, stolen“fair use” quoted text outnumbering her “original” words by ~2:1 (124:72 to be precise in this instance). Here she is spitting and cursing about Saudi plans to electronically monitor the movements of their women, much as privileged westerners track house pets. The article she cites, and others elsewhere, are short on detail as to exactly how the Saudis are going to implement this, but it looks like they are falling short of implanted microchips – (more…)

Mere logical fallacies are no longer sufficient to capture the full scope of the collective derangement that pours unchecked out of freefromthoughtblogs, Skepchick and now it’s brain-damaged crack-baby Atheism+. Their cocktail of rabid witch-hunting, indoctrinational disinformation and the nouveau theology of Oppression is birthing its whole own schema of perfidious gobbledygook that defies classification as simply fallacy and deserves its own sub-section in the Skeptics Dictionary – that of logical incoherencies.

A couple, such as ad himinem and reductio ad Watsonum, have been mentioned previously. A broader principle, that of Myers’ law – that what you say to any denizen of their sheltered workshops never has any realistic relation to what they actually hear – has also been postulated and covers the origin of much of the baboons’ general incoherence. Myers’ law is easy enough for anyone to verify by simply attempting to initiate a discussion in any of their forums (degree of difficulty: like falling off a toilet drunk). (more…)

I grew up withMaximumRockNRoll. Whilst far too often wallowing in identity politic nihilism, it was a priceless resource for alt.culture in the pre-internet stone age. It kept many of us sane, providing endless resources to other folks like us cruelly separated by the tyranny of distance. The premier issue was July 1982 – which makes us scumfucs that remember pushing 50 and beyond. The age that we used to hate with a fearsome passion.

Central to MRR’s appeal was knowing you were not alone. That there were others on the planet that held the same contempt for what passed as pop culture of the time. For me personally, rock bottom was reached here, also in 1982 – ABC and Look of Love[masochists can click here]. I cannot articulate the despair that was evoked by this nothingness that was everywhere – every music teevee show, every commercial radio channel, every shopping mall, pub and club. Noxious, spotty teenagers pumping dimes in jukeboxes playing the same non-music, bubblegum garbage everywhere. There was no escape. But there was MRR – and it was a lifeline.

The most wonderful feature of MRR, and similar zines such as Metal Forces for the headbangers, was the personals section where folks would post real addresses for correspondence and, most importantly, cassette tape trading of music – very much the Napster of its day. (more…)